Mass Effect - 200 years ago, on an icy planet
by vistilia.actdros
Summary: 200 years ago on an icy planet, a Turian military operation took place on Vailen, or as it was known back then 'Catania'. Some story items taken from Dead Space 3
1. Chapter 1

200 years ago, on an icy planet...

The constant blizzard they had been walking in for hours had annoyed them. They decided to  
stop moving to catch their breath. "Spirits, Quiyn, this is hopeless!" Called out Therian.

Quiyn ignored him and attempted to contact the researcher who needed their help. "Alpha-Zeta, this is  
Delta-Charlie." Static came through the comm. "Alpha-Zeta, this is Delta-Charlie, Parnos, do you  
read me?" More static came through for a moment and the comm came to life. "Desis! Thank the spirits. Did you find it?!" Asked the voice, it was hard to hear due to the blizzard.

"Find it?...Doc, I don't even know what we're looking for!" He said back. "Argh...Just...Just follow the waypoint in your suit! I can't tell you any more! Just get the...Everything is..." The signal started to decay.

"What?...Doc I can't hear you!" Desis tried hitting his helmet in an attempt to fix the signal, but it  
was gone. "Dang it!..." He said. "Follow the waypoint? We've been following it for three hours  
and haven't found anything!" Therian said as he stood beside Desis.

Desis decided to start moving, following the blue line that acted as the waypoint in their helmets with Therian following close behind. The blizzard started to let up after they had walked through knee-deep snow for nearly 5 minutes. Once they could finally see, they saw the remains of a ship that had crashed recently. "Oh no...Spirits.." Breathed Desis as they began making their way towards it.

Down below they could see parts of the command center. There was smoke rising from the vehicles and Desis  
believed they were attacked, but they couldn't stop now. They were close to their objective.  
They were on an icy cliff, so they had to be careful.

They approached the ship's emergency hatch carefully. "Hey doc, we found it!" Desis suddenly said aloud, hoping the comm system worked now they were out of the blizzard. "Good! Can you get inside?" Replied the voice, he sounded hurt. "It's all sealed up!" He said in return. "Look around, th-there must be a way!" They looked at the ship's emergency hatch.

It was glowing slightly and read **_Break latch_**. Desis looked at Therian who nodded at him and he raised his rifle to fire. "Damnit Quiyn, you don't even know how to hold your rifle." Desis ignored him yet again and fired at the latch, breaking it and allowing the ship's hatch to burst open followed by groans. Both soldiers stepped back and Quiyn raised his rifle, and Therian raised his pistol, as it was all he had.

Both of their tracking lasers that acted as 'scopes' traced through the smoke. They knew what was coming, they had fought a few of the  
creatures before, but they still scared Desis as he was a new recruit. With another groan, a white, frozen figure that resembled a human bursted from the door.

"Shoot it! Shoot it!" Cried Desis as he fired at it, the frozen corpse fell apart with a few bullets, but more came through.  
Their groans and unworldly moans sent shivered through Desis' whole body. "Quiyn, you're not a soldier!" Called Therian as he fired at the creatures, the limb of one creature broke off as one of his rounds hit it, but it got close and Therian hit it in the head with the handle of his pistol, nearly causing the creature's head to shatter.

After that one died he turned around and fired a shot into the head of the creature that had latched onto Desis with it's arms. Once it fell off, Desis was breathing heavily. "Th-Thanks." He said and nodded at Therian. "You should have stayed on Palaven, you've no business to be here, Quiyn. You're the only private here, everyone else is at least a sergeant."

They made their way into the ship, not encountering any more creatures. "Clear!" Desis called out. "That thing the doctor wants is probably in the cockpit." Usually, Turian ships had bridges, but this ship was a small transport, only having a 2 seat 'bridge' for a pilot and co-pilot.

"Okay, which way?" Desis asked. "It should be up that ladder there. I'll stay here and keep watch. Hey, Desis?" Therian patted him on the shoulder. "I know I give you a hard time, but you're a good kid." He pointed to the ladder and Desis flared his mandibles under his helmet. "Thanks, Therian."

He began making his way down the hall and tripped over something and elicited a yelp. He turned and raised his rifle, the flashlight built into it illuminated a female Quarian. Desis breathed a sigh of relief and lowered his rifle. "Who're you? I thought the Hierarchy was the only power here?" Desis asked and helped the Quarian to her feet.

Her suit was black with grey highlights, it looked to be some sort of military suit. "My name is Rena. Rena'Ganu nar Idenna. And I work for the Hierarchy." She replied. This baffled Desis, he hadn't expected to see a Quarian here.

"I'm here on a mission with my partner, he's just down the hall there keeping  
watch, we have to recover something called the 'Codex'." He explained to her. Rena coughed a few times "Th-That thing? It's in the cockpit, up there." She pointed to the ladder that Therian had already pointed out to him. "You'll need two to open the pilot's cage." She said and nudge him towards the ladder.

"Who's your commanding officer?" She asked as Desis began to ascend the ladder. "Uh, um. G-General Actdros. General Octus Actdros." Desis replied, which made Rena giggle. "You're so nervous, are you sure you're a soldier?" She said at him with a joking tone. "O-Of course! I know how to shoot." He said which made Rena sigh.

"Any fool can pull a trigger." She said once they both got to the top of the ladder, Desis pulling her up. "Okay, get in-front of that screen, there." She said and walked to the one on the farthest side of the cage. Desis did as she said and got in-front of the screen that was exactly the same as her's.

"Okay, 3...2...1...Now!" Desis said and pressed the screen where it said '**_Activate_**'. Rena did the same and the pilot's cage flew open. Rena leaned against the side of the cage and crossed her arms while Desis walked to the pilot's seat, and reached over and picked up a cylinder that felt unusually heavy. He clipped it to his armor's belt.

"Doc, it's me. I have it." He said. "Good! Now get to the silo, don't stop for Anybody!" The doctor replied, and Desis turned his head to notice a screen with a red background. **'Self-Destruct in: 00:02'** Desis' eyes widened and by the time he even knew what to do, there was a massive explosion, which knocked him against the console as Rena got flung into him.

He was thinking of his mother and father, about Therian who he had come to treasure as a friend, and their mission. "Therian! Get out now!" He said over his comm, but all he got was static. He couldn't move, with Rena's weight on him, and the pain in his arms and one of his legs, he assumed the worst, that his arms and leg were broken. He began to breath heavily, and turned his head just in time to see another explosion, and then everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2

His eyes shot open. How long had he been out of it? He groaned and looked around using his eyes around, not sure if moving any part of his body was wise at the moment and discovered he had fallen nearly 35 feet down the cliff.

The pain in his back and head was unbearable and he felt himself slowly slipping into unconsciousness again, but before his eyes shut again, he noticed something in the snow, maybe it was Rena, the Quarian he discovered in the ship. Maybe it was his rifle, he didn't know, and his eyes shut as he went unconscious again.

When he slowly regained consciousness, he first thing he noticed is that it was getting dark. He groaned again as he slowly got to his feet. Spirits, did his body hurt badly. He stood there, wondering what he should do. He got the idea to contact Sergeant Therian.

He was just about to speak when he coughed a few times, causing him to groan from the pain in his chest. "Therian?...Are you there?" He got nothing back, just silence. He began to move to the object he remembered he had seen in the snow earlier. When he approached, he recognized it as his rifle. It was half burried in the snow but was otherwise undamaged from the explosion and fall.

He fell to his knees and began to dig his rifle out of the snow, once he had unearthed it, he picked it up and checked it over, just to make sure it was undamaged. Once he finished with that, he looked around and he realized he was alone. "Spirits..." He said to himself.

He began walking down the cliff-side, taking careful steps so he didn't disturb too much snow at once. He made it to the bottom after what to him seemed like an hour. _That wasn't so bad_, he thought to himself.

He was wrong. At the bottom of the cliff he found Rena's blood covered body. Along with the cylinder he was asked to retrieve. "Rena?" He said as he cautiously make his way to her body, he was slightly uneasy about going near it as he swore he could see her breathing, but there was no way she could be alive, her mask was cracked and she had numerous glass shards stuck in her chest.

He sighed to himself and looked at the cylinder, it was damaged beyond repair. "Spirits! Rena, why did you take it?" He said to her as if she could hear him. He had to tell Parnos. "Doc? Parnos, it's Desis." His comm crackled to life, finally! "Desis! I heard an explosion, is the object okay?" Came the now familiar voice over his helmet's comm. "No Doc, it's broken. I clipped it to my armor and I found it by a Quarian I found earlier aboard the ship." The comm crackled for a moment.

"The cylinder is broken? There's only 2 on this whole planet, Desis! You need to get me the other one!" Desis sighed. "Doc, slow down! I need to know why we need these if I'm going to risk my neck for it. Two already have." He said and he began to think about the sergeant again. "Desis, I can't tell you anything else but you have to do this, everything is at stake!"

Desis sighed again and looked down at Rena's body. Did she just...Move? "Okay, Doc. Where is the other cylinder?" He asked while taking a few steps away from the body. "In...It's in the storage depot, not A-23, it's in B-02! Go to the locker area, the common goods storage. Look for locker D-6, Desis! Do you hear me? D-6! You have to get there befo..." The comm suddenly went silent.

Desis knew he wouldn't reach the doctor again. Spirits, he couldn't believe this. But he had to admit, he felt important. He pulled up a map of the complex in his helmet and eyed the map. He discovered that the storage area he was instructed to go to was in one of the more higher security areas, and he didn't have clearance to enter.

"Spirits, what do I do now?" He mumbled to himself as he began his walk towards the command center. After he traveled a few meters, his comm crackled to life again. "Did you hear me? Do not trust the General, do not stop for anybody, do you hear me?" Came the doctor's voice. "Uh, Doc. I'm not sure I can do this."

This was going against everything he was taught in boot camp. He was passed through boot camp, but he had not expected to be sent here. "Desis, you have to! Okay? You have to! Everything is at stake, the Hierarchy itself depends upon our success here!" The comm cut out again.

What did he mean by that? Desis wondered and took a detour away from the command center, he had thought about reporting in, but with the most recent warning from the doctor, he decided it wasn't worth the chance.

He began to move again, down a path that had been created by heavy machinery. He slipped a few times on some icy patches, and stopped moving for a rest. He never took the time to realize there was a strange beauty in the dark sky and frozen landscape.

Desis was just about to begin moving again when suddenly something grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. Infront of him was Therian. "Th-Therian! I thought you were...Gone." Desis said. Spirits, was he happy to see him!

"It takes more than an explosion to get rid of me." He said and patted Desis on the shoulder. "You of all people should know that, Desis." Desis tilted his head slightly, Therian never called him by his first name before.

"You and I need to have a chat, Desis. Now."


End file.
